Convicted Serial Shooter faces sentencing trial

by Jacques Billeaud - Jul. 12, 2009 11:01 AMAssociated Press

PHOENIX - As his partner in crime sits on Arizona's death row, a drifter who admitted taking part in a series of random nighttime shootings that left six people dead is poised to find out whether his cooperation with investigators will lead a jury to spare his life.

Samuel Dieteman, who pleaded guilty to two murders in metro Phoenix's Serial Shooter attacks and testified against the case's main suspect, will seek leniency this week when a jury begins to consider whether to give him the death penalty.

Earlier this year at the murder trial of the case's main suspect, Dieteman testified that they cruised streets looking for strangers to shoot and kept close tabs on the investigation by following print and broadcast news accounts of the attacks.

"We were the ones doing it, so we watched to see what new leads they had," Dieteman said.

Opening arguments at Dieteman's sentencing trial are set to begin Wednesday. If jurors decide against giving him the death penalty, Dieteman is guaranteed a life sentence.

The dozens of Serial Shooter attacks over a 14-month period unnerved this desert city in the summer of 2006 as investigators tried to crack the case. At the same time, police attributed 23 more attacks, including nine slayings, to an assailant dubbed the Baseline Killer.

Mark Goudeau was arrested in the killings in September 2006 and was convicted of two sexual assaults authorities linked to the Baseline Killer. Goudeau still faces trial on nine murder counts.

Authorities say Dieteman, 33, and his former roommate, Dale Hausner, 36, preyed on pedestrians, bicyclists and animals in attacks that ended in August 2006 when both men were arrested at the apartment they shared in Mesa. Inside, police found guns, news clippings of the killings and a city map marked with the locations of some of the shootings.

In late March, Hausner was given six death penalties and hundreds of years in prison for killing six people and attacking 19 others. Hausner has denied any involvement in the attacks and suggested Dieteman might have carried out some of the crimes.

Dieteman, who was charged with murdering two people and attacking 14 others, maintains he didn't take part in all the attacks.

Dieteman lawyer Maria Schaffer and prosecutors declined to comment on the sentencing trial.

"Dale's story is out there," said Tim Agan, one of Hausner's attorneys. "He believes that he didn't do it. He doesn't know who did it, whether it's Sam Dieteman or not."

Dieteman made a bid at leniency by admitting in court that he committed his crimes in a cruel and calculated manner. His attorneys were expected to emphasize Dieteman's cooperation with authorities and testimony against his former roommate.

Dieteman, the star prosecution witness at Hausner's trial, testified the attacks got to be so routine that the details of one shooting blended into another.

He said he and Hausner found the sight of one victim wounded by Hausner to be funny because they didn't think he was seriously injured, even though the angry victim was holding his stomach.

Later that night, Dieteman said he committed his first shooting after spotting a woman walking home in Scottsdale. "'It's your turn, dude,' " Dieteman quoted Hausner as saying. The victim, 20-year-old restaurant worker Claudia Gutierrez Cruz, died.

Asked by a prosecutor to describe his thoughts as he saw the victim on the ground, Dieteman said: "The first person I had killed - I was kinda freaking out. I don't know how to describe it." The pair returned to Hausner's apartment, where Dieteman drank rum and Cokes until he passed out.

Adriana Cruz, the older sister of Gutierrez, described to Hausner's jurors the sadness she felt in having to call her parents in Mexico to tell them her sister had been killed. "From that moment, I felt like my world had come to a halt," Cruz said.

Hausner's attorneys had said Dieteman spiced up his statements to police to save his own skin and scoffed at Dieteman's claim that he was clearing his conscience by making a plea deal with prosecutors.

Dieteman and Hausner met in April 2006 - about nine months after the Serial Shooter attacks began - when Dieteman was living with Hausner's brother, Jeff.

Dale Hausner had said he declined Dieteman's request to move into his apartment, but eventually agreed to it, because Dieteman would have ended up living on the streets and eating out of garbage bins. Dieteman lived in Dale Hausner's living room for four months before their arrest in August 2006.